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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Mushrooms and Fairies

I've been noticing mushrooms on the forest floor this year. I don't know if the unusually hot weather this summer had something to do with their size or appearance, but the wild mushrooms growing in the woods behind our house seem larger and more colorful than usual.

I can't decide if I like the looks of this mushroom or not . . . Is it pretty? Or scary? A sign of healthy soil? Or of creepy, poisonous spores?

There. Much better. Now the mushroom looks charming and even useful. Those little fairies can take shelter under the mushroom when it rains, or sit in its shade when the sun's too hot for their delicate wings.

That mushroom is most likely an Amanita frostiana, which is a pretty name and a fairly rare mushroom. It is however, poisonous, definitely not edible, and many Amanitas are considered deadly! Keep those little fairies away if you can : )

That's actually a beautiful mushroom!! Much prettier than the ones we have in our backyard, which actually look like the kind that you buy in the store and that I've had to smack out of my children's hands before they stuff them in their mouths.